How Your Color Scheme Affects Visitors’ Perception of Your Brand

Does color make a difference when it comes to branding your business? Researchers and psychologists have spent decades analyzing this question. The answer, not surprisingly, is complicated, but the truth is this: Every business should be aware of the way their chosen color schemes may affect visitor perception on its website.

What Color Means in Terms of Perception

Each of us has a personal, social and cultural response to colors. For instance, a new mom of a little girl may immediately think of her child when she sees pink, which is a hue often associated with females. Someone else with a personal aversion to the color pink might find it to be a turnoff. This makes it challenging to determine a group’s response to color.

Does this mean you should forget about trying to use color to persuade visitors to trust or remember your brand? Of course not. It simply means you should use your best judgment based on some overarching facts about the generalized responses associated with each basic color. You can’t predict what one person will think, but you can arm yourself with the commonly accepted color-based psychological attributes:

Red: The color red is associated with boldness, strength, and excitement.

Orange: Looking for a confident feel for your brand image? Orange can be a cheerful, likeable color.

Yellow: Positivity is a notable characteristic of yellow, as is warmth.

Green: Green can denote many things in the U.S., such as environmental friendliness, money and health.

Blue: Website and logo designers often use blue to show strength and trustworthiness.

Purple: Imagination and innovation are traits of purple.

White: A white image shows a sense of serenity and calmness.

Black: This stark non-color can be seen as direct, bold, and in charge.

Figure out which color scheme will work best with your company’s mission, vision, and culture. For example, you might be in search of a way to show your site visitors that your business runs on imagination mixed with optimism. In that case, a logo or website designed in purple and yellow could be the right match. Don’t think it looks quite right? Play around with other color combinations until you feel that it resonates with your organization.

Use Proven Color Combinations to Build Your Brand Image

Another way to use color to achieve specific visitor perceptions of your brand is to use complementary colors. On the color wheel, complementary colors are opposite one another, such as red and green, or blue and orange. Businesses often use a website and logo designed in complementary colors to ensure messages and emotions stand out.

Beyond complementary colors, you can opt for a brand image represented by all warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges), cool colors (blues, greens, violets), or primary colors (red, blue, yellow.) Working with your designer of choice, you can come up with the best combinations to achieve successful results.

How to Know If Your Chosen Color Scheme Is Working

After choosing your color scheme to promote a specific type of visitor perception, you should pay special attention to the way your visitors respond. Track your analytics: Do your website visitors seem to be getting the full picture of your business through the colors you’ve chosen? The numbers won’t lie, nor will the inbound leads who talk to you about your products and services.

Deciding on a color for your site and logo includes more than choosing a color you like — it’s about using human psychology and science to your advantage.